“Come back to bed.”
“Just tell me your address so I can go.”
“No.”
“No?”
“If you really want to go home, I’ll take you. But you’re going to listen first.”
She doesn’t agree, but she doesn’t make any attempt to move to the bed either. So I move to her, not bothering to put on any clothes or cover up. It throws her off guard. “Kiss me.”
“What? No.”
“Damn it, Kate.” I cup her head and seal my mouth over hers. Her flimsy attempt to protest is quickly swallowed by a moan as her body sags into my arms. My heart is raging in my chest as I lift her and carry her back to bed.
“Cooper …”
I cut her off. “Shhh … tomorrow. We’ll figure it out tomorrow.”
chapter twenty-three
Kate
Stubble. If I thought Cooper Montgomery was a god cleanly shaven, wearing a custom-tailored suit, it was only because I’ve never seen him in ripped jeans, a dark t-shirt and stubble. Jesus. The man does things to me. Seeing him standing at the stove, suddenly the speech I’d rehearsed in my mind has escaped me.
“Morning.” He grins at me and eyes my stealing his dress shirt again with approval.
“Coffee?”
“Kiss first.” He crooks his finger in my direction with a steely gaze.
I roll my eyes like it’s the ultimate sacrifice as I lazily shuffle over to him.
He grabs my ass with one hand and directs my head to where he wants it with the other. The hand on my backside swats with a hard smack when he releases my mouth.
“What was that for?” I rub the stinging cheek of my ass.
“For rolling your eyes at me.” Strangely, I think to myself that I’ll need to remember to roll my eyes more often.
“I thought you didn’t cook?” I peer at the three burners he has going.
“I don’t.”
“Looks like you know what you’re doing.”
“I said I didn’t cook. I never said I didn’t know how. Sit. I’ll pour your coffee.”
“Bossy,” I mumble under my breath, but take the seat he points to on the other side of the counter.
“You must be difficult to work for.”
Cooper cocks one eyebrow. “And why is that?”
“Because you’re so bossy.”
“My employees don’t tend to be as difficult as you.” He slides a mug over to me.
“Is that so?”
“It is.”
“Do you have a lot of female employees?”
“Would it bother you if I did?”
“I’m not sure.” I shrug and consider it. “It might. But that’s not why I asked.”
“Okay. Well about half of my department heads are women.”
“And do you find any of them bossy?”
A wry grin crosses his perfectly masculine face. “You think I have an issue with women in general?”
“Maybe.” I sip my coffee.
Cooper plates breakfast and walks around the island to join me at the stools. He leans down, sweeps the hair from my shoulder and tenderly kisses my neck. His words vibrate on my skin. “You’re the only woman I have an issue with.”
Belly full, I fork the remnants of breakfast around my plate, delaying the inevitable. The conversation is bound to come. “I seem to overeat when I’m with you,” I say, finishing the last of the bacon.
“That’s good. I like to watch you eat.”
“Well if I ate like this often, I’d gain ten pounds in a month.”
“Not with lots of exercise.”
“I’m not really great about getting to the gym. Twice-a-week yoga if I’m being good.”
“There are plenty of other ways to burn calories I think you might enjoy better.” Cooper kisses my mouth and takes my plate to the sink.
He turns around, leaning against the counter and folds his arms. “You ready to have that talk?”
“Not really.”
“Oh. But I have an idea to make things interesting.” He turns, opens a drawer, pulls out a pack of cards, and tosses them on the counter.
“We’re going to play cards?” I furrow my brow.
“Yep. I have some ideas. But you may not like a few of them. So we’re going to play a hand to decide our stalemates. You in?”
“You do know I’m pretty good at playing, right?”
Cooper grins. “I do. But I plan to throw off your game by distracting you.”
“And how will you do that?”
“We’re going to play naked.”
I look up at him with raised eyebrows. “Confident your nakedness will throw me off, are you?”
Cooper draws down his pants, his semi-hard erection springing free. Damn. Commando. He leisurely strokes his cock a few times. My eager eyes follow the slide of his hand up and down. My mouth salivates when a tiny drop glistens at the tip of the wide crown.
“Kate.” My eye leap to his, but he keeps stroking and my gaze falls victim to the ever-growing swell. “If your concentration isn’t rattled enough, I’m going to use my mouth on your sweet pussy until you can’t see the cards straight.”
“Oh.” I try to force my thoughts out of the gutter and focus.
“You ready?”
“Do I have a choice?”
He grins. “Not really.”
“I think your real plan was to get me out of my clothes so I couldn’t run away after you told me that.”
“It was a light investigation. I do more on my employees.”
“And you run background checks on women you date too?”
“So we’re dating?”
“You know what I meant.”
“If we were dating, maybe I wouldn’t have had to figure out what was going on myself. Maybe you would have shared it with me.”
“I did share it with you.”
“Last night.”
“So?”
“I needed to know what I was up against before that.”
“So you invaded my priva …” I trail off, my eyes getting caught in his web of actions again. He’s sitting against the headboard, naked as a jaybird, with me between his legs, facing him—wearing a matching outfit. And he starts stroking again just as I’m about to yell at him.
“I know what you’re doing,” I swallow and say.
“And do you like watching me do it?” His mouth curves to an impish smile. This is going to be more difficult than I thought.
“I’ll start.”
“Okay,” I say with trepidation.
“I want to be with you. Do you want to be with me?”
“Yes … but …”
He holds up his hand. “Let’s take baby steps. I’ve thought this through all morning.”
“Okay.”
“So we’ve got the most important thing established. We want to be together. The rest will take some negotiation.”
“I think you’ve figured out something we both already knew. The hard part is how to get through the next five weeks.”
“I’d like you to quit the show today. I understand you want to help your family. I find it noble actually. But my first preference is to pay off the debt for you. I have the money and it would make me happy to help.”
“I can’t do that, Cooper.” It’s tempting, truly it is. Even the thought of having a little of the load I shoulder lifted, makes me feel like someday I really will have my own life back again. But I need to take care of my family before that can happen.
“That’s an impasse. We’ll play a hand for that decision.” Cooper removes the cards from their box.
I squint my eyes, watching him. Something in the way his jaw flexes lights the bulb over my head. “I’ll shuffle and deal,” I say, extending my hand.
“Are you concerned I might cheat if given the opportunity?”
I don’t respond verbally. Instead I deal out five cards each, suits facing up. Cooper’s hand miraculously has four queens. “Did you think four aces would be to obvious?”
The corner of his mouth twitches. “Maybe.”
I scoop up the cards. “You want to settle things this way. We’ll do it, but we’ll do it fair and square.” I shuffle the cards with one hand like a pro.